Guest Blog Post: Distilling Your Own Gin

Who doesn't dream of making their own moonshine in the basement? Luckily, my pal Henry does it already, so I can just sit back and sip the end product.

I sampled his homemade gin at a holiday party a couple months ago and was blown away. First of all, it was so good you drink it straight, though importantly it must be very chilled. Straight gin sounds alarming, I know, but it was so deserving. You could taste all kinds of layers of flavor and freshness and juniper and I'm sure of it, the essence of the Pacific Northwest where he lives.

I immediately asked if he wanted to do a guest post on the how-to. Selfish reasons? Perhaps, but also I just found it so awesome I had to share.

Along with St. George's Terroir Gin (inspired by the mountain I grew up on), Henry's concoction is the root of my newfound love of gin. So thanks Henry!

Henry was apologetic about the quality of his photos, but I kind of fell for their Unabomber-makes-moonshine quality.

So here you go, Henry's Guide to Home Distillation:

This here is an absolutely bare-bones method of home distillation that is reliable, costs about ten dollars, and is likely the simplest and easiest way you’ll find to make high-quality gin at home. Moonshining is a very old art with a long history in America, but seeing how it remains illegal to operate an unlicensed still (mainly because the guv’ment makes boatloads in liquor taxes), I’ll stick to the premise that you readers are just curious intellectuals.

Before we get our hands dirty though, I’d like to lay to rest a couple of misconceptions regarding moonshine that might be gnawing at you.

1. You don’t need any fancy equipment. The setup I describe here is simple, cheap and workable. Without a little patience though, you’d do better to run to the corner for a fifth of Gordon’s and go back to daydreaming.

2. Properly made moonshine isn’t poisonous, and won’t make you blind. This type of rumor probably stems from unscrupulous moonshiners during prohibition who would stretch their liquor with toxic methylated spirits, or ignorant ones who would use lead-based solder in their stills. A quart of the gin I describe here will have less methanol in it than a glass of orange juice.

Now, to work:

Fermentation

The first thing to do is start fermenting. Might as well start now, as the process will take 10-21 days. One glossarial note: the mixture you’re about to make of sugar, water and yeast is called “must.” When it’s done fermenting it’s called “wine.” This recipe for moonshine must comes straight from Dolly Freed’s incredible book Possum Living, which I highly recommend you read if this sort of thing is interesting to you. 

Now, assemble:

1. A five gallon paint bucket or similar (one of those big blue Alhambras would work too).

2. Five pounds regular granulated sugar.

3. A big soup pot.

4. One packet ordinary active dry baker’s yeast.

Put a gallon and a half of water in the pot and put it over a burner, then mix in the sugar until it’s all dissolved and turn the heat off.

Pour the sugar-water you just made into the bucket, then pour another gallon and a half of cold water in after. If it’s about room temperature, add the yeast. Yeast like a steady temperature between 65 and 90 degrees. Much hotter and they’ll die, much colder and they’ll go dormant. Cover the bucket with an old t-shirt, something so air can get in and out but flies and dust are excluded. Within 24 hours, the yeast will start eating the sugar and producing ethyl alcohol and CO2. You’ll hear them bubbling; it’s a glorious sound. Leave your must alone until they stop bubbling, and go set up your still.

Distillation

This still is made of a teakettle and costs about four dollars (assuming you already have a teakettle). Besides that, you’ll need a rubber stopper the size of your kettle’s spout, and a 4-5 foot length of 5/8ths inch copper tubing, both of which you can get at the hardware store. Don’t use any metal in your still besides aluminum, copper or stainless steel. Hammer a nail through the rubber stopper, then thread the tubing through the hole the nail made. This tubing is your still-pipe, and it needs a specific shape in order to work properly. Taking care not to crimp the tube, jam the stopper in the kettle and bend your still-pipe to create a short rising section, then a dip to run the pipe through a cold water bath, then a sort of shepherd’s crook to bring the end of the pipe closer. Take a look at the picture to see how it’s done. When you’ve finished, blow through one end and hold your finger over the other to make sure air flows easily. That’s it: now you have a still.

When your must has stopped bubbling and turned to wine, pour it into your still no more than two-thirds full. With a three-quart kettle you’ll do “runs” of two quarts at a time. If you’ve done everything right, the wine is 10% alcohol (the natural limit of baker’s yeast), and there’s pretty much no unfermented sugar left in the solution. You can taste a little to see if it’s still sweet.

Assemble your still and turn the heat on medium while you fill a tub with cold water and place it under the dip in your still-pipe so a length of pipe is submerged. Ready a large jar and a shotglass.

When liquid begins to come out the end of the still-pipe, turn the heat down low and collect the first third of an ounce of so. These are the “heads,” and should be discarded. After that start collecting the drops in the large jar and take a taste of twenty drops or so every once in a while to check how it’s coming along. The first few ounces will be very near pure liquor, and after that more and more water will come up the pipe too. When it doesn’t taste of alcohol any more your run is over. You should have about half a quart of 25-30% liquor. 

Congratulations! You’ve made moonshine.

Two or three more runs like that and you’ll have enough liquor for a fifth of gin. Combine the product of all 3-4 runs in a jar and add a big handful of juniper berries.

Press them a little first, but don’t crush them. You can find juniper fresh by the side of the road in winter, or at your favorite food co-op. When they’ve sat for two hours, put everything (berries too) in the still pot and distill. Keep the heat low to go a little slower than usual so the juniper berries have a lot of time to soak in the hot moonshine. When this run is over, your finished product will be very strong, very tasty gin that you can water down to a more standard proof if you’d like.

Henry, maker of excellent spirits

Fig Jam Four Ways + Chipotle Fig Jam Recipe

Well really, if you count all the ones I ate fresh it would be figs five or six ways at least, but we'll stick to the preserving front which ranges from sweet to savory spice as well as boozy.

Once again, a friend's generosity fueled my creativity in the kitchen. Walnut Creek has got the heat, and my friend Michaela invited me over to pick from her two huge fig trees on a warm day indeed. After all that hard work, her button-cute daughter Stella was nice enough to hose down my feet. That felt nice!

While I ogled and munched figs back in my kitchen, I already had a few recipes and flavor combos in mind. First up, to make some balsamic fig jam. I have been addicted to LuLu's fig balsamic vinegar for years, and it's an indisputable swoon-worthy flavor combination. Second, I wanted to use the fennel pollen I had scored at the very first food swap. Fennel and figs go together like birthdays and cake, and that's a fact. Third, was to preserve some in brandy — these Sicilian Preserved Figs were a hit with friends.

As I cooked down all these dazzling concoctions, I knew just what to do with the remaining fruit: add some smoky, spicy, heat.

I always have a can or two of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce on the pantry shelves or in the fridge. I use them in eggs, chilequiles, soups and chili, and even put a bit of the sauce in salad dressing for roasted vegetable salads. I am happy to report the jam outcome was as expected: sensational. The earthy smoky spice of the chiles paired with the concentrated sweetness of the figs makes them soar.

Chipotle Fig Jam
Yields 4 half pints

2 lbs figs, chopped
2 cups sugar
1 cup water
4 tablespoons lemon juice, plus a few lemon slices if desired
1-1½ canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, chopped — to taste, depending on your desired spice level

Chop your figs according to how chunky you want your jam, and place in a large non-reactive pot. Cover with sugar and let macerate for 30 minutes to an hour.

Add water, lemon juice, and lemon slices if using, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce to a simmer and stir regularly to prevent scorching.

After an hour, if needed, use a potato masher to break up the figs. Stir in the chopped chipotle chile in adobo sauce.

Cook another 15-20 minutes, or until the jam has reached a consistency you like.

Ladle into hot jars, and process in a water bath canner for 10 minutes.

Confession time: The harvest and output described here was actually from last year. In fact, I've already gone and picked the first round of this year's crop which has resulted in four new types of figgy goodness, including a different fennel flavor, plus herbal and citrus mixes. I promise to highlight some of them here before this time next year...

Brandied Cocktail Cherries

This rainy day is perfect timing – I have been meaning to share details on the making of things I've brought to our recent swaps, and this is just the break I needed.

For the June swap I focused on the seasonal bounty of stone fruit, and first up was cherries. Like most of you I imagine, I keep folders – both online and hard copy, depending on where I find them – of recipes I want to try out, and this Cocktail Cherries recipe had caught my eye on the KCRW Good Food blog a few months back. I was just waiting for the cherries to appear...and then they were here, in huge ripe tempting piles of red fruit, everywhere!

I scored 4 lbs. of gorgeous, plump pesticide-free cherries at the Civic Center Farmers Market for $9 and trundled home happily. The thing I really liked about this recipe is that aside from the fruit I had everything required already in my pantry: sugar, fresh lemon juice, cinnamon stick, fresh vanilla bean, cardamon pods, star anise, brandy and water. I added a couple extra cardamom pods, and substituted simple syrup for the agave nectar since sometimes agave can taste a little off to me, but otherwise stuck to the above recipe.

Cocktail cherries on simmer

One thing I did notice is that some of the cherries got a bit scalded. Whether this was from me simmering them too long (I did cook them a bit longer than called for to make sure the flavors really absorbed), or letting the heat get a little high, or the fact I used a larger pot which left them closer to the heat in a thinner layer across the bottom, I'm not sure...but aside from a couple having wrinkly skin, there were no real negative effects so I didn't worry about it.

Hot cherries

The other nice thing about this recipe is that you let the cherries cool to room temperature before putting them in jars, so there's no handling of hot fruit and liquid which definitely makes it easier. The recipe yielded six 8-oz. jars (though this will vary depending on the size of your cherries), with some left over for me to use for samples at the swap, but I did need to mix up some extra liquid to cover all the cherries. To do this I took some remaining simple syrup, some additional brandy and a little water – mixed it up in the saucepan used to cook the fruit to get any remaining cherry goodness out, and spread it between the jars to top them up.

Topping off the jars

The cherries were left whole, with the stem and pit still on, so while they do look great in a cocktail glass, you need to either remember to remove the pits before serving, or advise yourself/your pals before consuming. They are also excellent atop vanilla ice cream, yogurt or any dessert you want to add a little kick to, and the liquid can be added to your Manhattan or other drinks to taste too.

In my opinion these turned out so well I actually wish I had kept a jar for myself, but luckily they were very easy to make, so I'll just have to get another batch in jars before all the cherries are gone. Come to think of it, that's another thing that'd be perfect for this rainy day!